After the COAS’s two days official visit to Egypt, the relation between both countries is the talk of the town. Pakistani Chief of Army Staff met the defense minister and Chief of staff in Egypt and promise to work on the security and collaboration. They also assured to have military to military relationship and Egyptian leaders expressed their great interest in getting the aid from Pakistan Army in counter terrorism. Pakistani army has fought a successful war on terrorism and still is doing so, but unfortunately Pakistan’s foreign policy is so feeble to project the positive image of Pakistan and unable to counter the issues arising on international media against Pakistan.
Pakistan Egypt relationship traced back to 1947 when Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah the Founder of Pakistan paid a farewell visit to Egypt on the special invitation sent by King Fuad II. But the diplomatic relationship started back in 1951 and during war against Israel Pakistan gave military technical and personnel aid to the Egyptian government. Pakistan is the only Islamic country having atomic power and is one of the best army, but due to the weak diplomatic ties with the foreign world Pakistan is unable to sell its true image in every field of life especially armed forces.
Pakistan’s image is distorted on International media and forums. Anti-Pakistan lobby is quite active in working against Pakistan and plying its vigorous role in defaming and slandering the true image of Pakistan which we saw during NSG membership Issue and purchase of F-16 from America. So, we need to have a strong diplomatic relation with the outer world. We need to adopt a strong defense diplomacy which is a pursuit of foreign policy objectives, through the nonviolent and peaceful engagement of defense resources and capabilities, and Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has taken up the responsibility and executing it well to build the confident image of Pakistan for the world.
General Raheel Sharif has previously visited many other countries too for the similar purpose. If we want to survive in this world we need to have good diplomatic relations. Now, after the meeting, Pakistan and Egypt has settled to enhance the standing level of defense and military co-operation between the both countries, as well as helping Egypt in fighting terrorism including countering (IED) improvised explosive devices. On the first hand, let’s not compare Pakistan with other countries as situation varies from country to country.
“Politics should not be linked with the defense strategies of any country. All such visits are meant to exhibit the good image of Pakistan in general. It’s now a time for the elected government to portray the country in a good light and dispel the impression of government-armed forces being on the collision course.”
